St. Catherine of Siena

Today we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church. My favorite quote of hers is:

“Be who God meant you to be

and you will set the world on fire.”

Four Young Priests

Prayers requested for the Diocese of San Juan de los Lagos. Four young priests in the diocese died this past Friday due to injuries received in an automobile accident.
I studied in the seminary in San Juan de los Lagos 7 years ago where I first met these young men. Over the years Glenmary has had a good relationship with the diocese as they have opened their doors to allow our students from México to study philosophy.

Just for Fun

Estoy en San Juan de los Lagos, México

México

About halfway through the trip in Mexico. As planned, Fr. Neil who had previous commitments, flew back to the USA yesterday. I will remain in México for about one more week in order to meet, visit with and interview the remaining prospects. For the next couple of days I will be staying here in San Luis Potosí, afterwards I will continue traveling north to Monterrey and then Durango!

Update from México

Fr. Neil and I are still traveling along on our vocation trip in México to visit with prospects. Gracias a Dios, everything continues to go extremely well. Thanks to all for your prayers. Highlights of the trip thus far have included stops in Morelia, Guadalajara, San Juan de los Lagos, and now Querétaro! It is always impressive for me to meet with so many young men who have such a strong desire to discern God's will and follow that call. I think that all of the men we have met with so far have wonderful gifts that they could bring to the Glenmary missions.

San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, Mexico

Bishop Medley Encore

(Last week I posted a video clip of Bishop Medley, due to its 

extreme popularity, I have uploaded this encore performance.)

Most Rev. William Francis Medley, the Fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Owensboro ordained two Glenmary priests on Saturday, May 26, 2012. The following excerpts from his homily highlight the collaboration between Glenmary Home Missioners and the Diocese of Owensboro. Priesthood is measured in faithfulness... "And faithful the Glenmary's have been."

"Hardships? What are they? I left all that in the city. What is sweet peaceful serenity there is always here." Fr. Clem Borchers

World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Prayer for Vocations

God our Father, we thank you for calling men and women to serve in your Son’s Kingdom as priests, deacons, religious, and  consecrated persons. Send your Holy Spirit to help us respond generously and courageously to your call. May our community of faith support vocations of sacrificial love in our youth. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

From the USCCB website:
http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/world-day-of-prayer-for-vocations.cfm

New Reflections for Vocation Discerners

These vocation articles have recently been uploaded to the Glenmary website:

Pope Francis: A Glenmarian?
Pope Francis may be a Jesuit, but his actions and words mirror that of a Glenmarian.  Read about the ways Pope Francis compares favorably to a Glenmary priest.

Discerning Between Glenmary Priesthood and Diocesan Priesthood
Only God can answer these questions, but it's up to you to find that answer through prayer and discernment. The fact is, both Glenmary and the dioceses need men to answer God's call to the priesthood.

Student Overcomes Health Challenge in First Year of Formation
For most of us, it would seem impossible to leave our homes and families several thousand miles away with the intention of living in another land for the rest of our lives. Yet some Glenmary students do just that.

Bishop Medley on the Joys of Priesthood

Most Rev. William Francis Medley, the Fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Owensboro ordained two Glenmary priests; Fr. Crispine Adongo of Ulanda, Kenya, and Fr. Aaron Wessman of Cokato, Minn. on Saturday, May 26, 2012.

The following excerpts from his homily that day highlights the joys of being a priest and of following one's call.

Mexican Vocation Tour

As could be guessed from Saturday's post, I am in Mexico. I will be traveling with Glenmary's First Vice President, Fr. Neil Pezzulo. Three weeks to snake through Mexico in order to visit 12 prospects in 6 different states. As the blog title indicates, it is a vOcation tour and not a vAcation tour. 

Please pray for all the young men who are discerning their vocation with Glenmary Home Missioners.

I Sure Hope that I am Following the Right Sign...

There are signs all around us, pointing us in different directions as we discern our vocation. 

But if we want to find our vocation in life we have to follow the right signs.

A Promise Made Is a Debt Unpaid

Occasionally I like to publish the writings of Fr. John S. Rausch as a guest blogger. Fr. John is Glenmary priest living in Eastern, KY. 

Coal miners are marching with angry signs to the headquarters of Peabody Energy in St. Louis and chanting shaming slogans before the offices of Patriot Coal in Charleston, WV. In both cities the United Mine Workers of America staged acts of nonviolent civil disobedience to draw attention to over 22,000 retired miners and their dependents in jeopardy of losing their healthcare benefits.  Through corporate and legal maneuvering Peabody and Patriot are attempting to offload the heritage healthcare liabilities that miners had secured over the years through contracts and agreements.  (Full disclosure: I participated in the Charleston demonstration on April 1, 2013 and was arrested for trespassing on private property.)  

            For over sixty years the UMWA negotiated contracts with coal companies that included both terms and conditions of employment for active miners, and defined income and health benefits for retired miners and their dependents.  Coal mining is one of the most dangerous occupations, so historically miners put health and safety first.  They deferred larger wage increases, longer vacations and enhanced fringe benefits in exchange for contracts that gave them greater control over workplace health and safety and the promise of guaranteed lifetime health care.  Now those promises are about to be broken.   

            In 2007 Peabody Energy created Patriot Coal by spinning off some of its assets and a large portion of its UMWA benefit liabilities.  Some economists call this pattern “dumping obligations,” and 90 percent of the retirees covered by this arrangement never worked a day for Patriot.  Arch Coal used a similar process and created Magnum Coal two years before.  In 2008 Patriot Coal bought Magnum and assumed much of the long-term heritage obligations of both Peabody and Arch.  This made Patriot Coal a top heavy company with almost $1.4 billion liability debt wobbling through the marketplace.  With the recession and weakening of coal markets, Patriot declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012 placing all forms of deferred compensation, such as the health benefits of retirees won by UMWA contracts, at the mercy of the bankruptcy court.  On the surface, Peabody and Arch dumped their heritage liabilities, and with Chapter 11 bankruptcy Patriot can renegotiate all its contracts.  The big losers: the workers.

            Catholic theology has another way of looking at business.  John Paul II tells us that the purpose of business “is not simply to make a profit, but is to be found in its very existence as a community of persons...” (Centesimus Annus, #35).  This is the meaning of the principle of the priority of labor over capital (Laborem Exercens, #12).  From the Catholic perspective, labor is not simply an input to production, but workers become subjects within community.  They cannot be used up and thrown away. 

            Catholic social teachings would still recognize Peabody Energy and Arch Coal as “indirect employers” (cf. Laborem Exercens, #17) whose obligations do not cease with the formation of Patriot, but take up when the first employer, Patriot, can no longer meet its obligations.  Indeed, a promise made is a debt unpaid.

            In general U.S. bankruptcy laws are designed to protect assets, not people.  Still the bankruptcy judge can decide if Patriot Coal was formed intentionally, or recklessly, to dump huge heritage obligations with little chance of Patriot’s success, in which case the judge can hold the former employers responsible.

            Meanwhile, approximately 1,100 retirees have written the judge citing their problems with black lung, back injuries, heart disease, and bulging discs from mining.  These miners made the profits for their companies.  They deserve health care.  Anything less, is injustice.  

Mountains of Injustice: Social and Environmental Justice in Appalachia

From time to time I try to publish some of the writings of Fr. John Rausch as a guest blogger. Fr. John is Glenmary priest living in Eastern, KY. This article is a book review that he wrote for Mountains of Injustice: Social and Environmental Justice in Appalachia

Mountaintop removal (MTR), clear-cutting and mishandling of nuclear material offer different case studies of environmental degradation in Appalachia, but with a single conclusion: people of color, the poor and the working class suffer pollution and health hazards disproportionately. “Pollution or poverty” becomes a forced choice in this disadvantaged region. As Mountains of Injustice makes clear, people suffer because they lack the power and influence to prevent unfair practices. That is the theme hammered home in the essays by a dozen university scholars, environmental researchers and local activists.

Mountains describes Appalachia as a broad region that employs workers in diverse occupations. But because extractive industries dominate the economy, this resource-rich region has been designated a “mineral colony” or “sacrifice zone” by corporate America. The great irony: atop enormous wealth dwells dismal poverty.

I’ve focused here on the essay by Stephen J. Scanlan, a sociologist at Ohio University, because he sets the scene. He offers two explanations for the poverty/wealth dichotomy: one cultural, the other structural. The “culture of poverty” model says poverty is transmitted across generations through the lifestyle of people, i.e. lack of personal motivation, multiple-generational welfare and physical isolation keep people from entering the economic mainstream. But, contends Scanlon, by not explaining the exploitation of the region by absentee corporate interests, this approach merely blames the victims.

Scanlon presents the structural approaches from three perspectives: --The “growth center” model picks promising towns for development where rural residents can find employment and commerce. --The “core-periphery” model favors the high-growth urban “cores” that feed off the lagging rural “peripheries” for agriculture and resource extraction. --And, the “internal colonial” model has corporate interests, especially those owning the land and mineral rights, preventing autonomous development to keep the region as a subordinate colony for cheap labor, natural resources and locating hazards.

These three structural models demonstrate the power of corporations and politicians to determine regional development, and reveal the reason there’s no quick-fix to poverty in Appalachia.

To highlight Scanlon is not to diminish the other essays on the ethics of extraction, or pollution’s health effects on local communities, nor disregard the case studies about MTR or handling nuclear material. For example, Mountains’ “Afterword,” written by Jedediah S. Purdy, a lawyer and West Virginia native, is no afterthought, but contains nuggets of insightful reflection that deserve even more space. His essay discusses our relationship to nature. Most Americans believe the natural world exists explicitly for humans. That mindset gives logging and mining companies an avenue for resisting environmental restrictions. Only after World War II with the rise of suburbs, could this prevailing U.S. culture of consumption create a clean landscape for living free of industrial smells and pollution. Writes Purdy, “It drove working nature out of sight and out of mind.” It established clean and neat residential zones for our dwellings and distinct sacrifice zones for producing our food and energy indifferent to the health and beauty of that land. What a thoughtful perspective about the fate of Appalachia.

The Mountains’ case studies’ strategies for change offer important lessons for justice ministry. When clear-cutting threatened western North Carolina in the early 1980s, “wilderness- inspired” environmental campaigns emphasized pristine beauty, but got little traction. Instead, activists switched tactics recognizing that clear-cutting transformed multi-use forests into single- use timbering operations. They organized hunters, tourists and naturalists–basically working class folks–to rally for a multi-use commons environmentalism that won the campaign.

Likewise, in opposing strip-mining and MTR, organizers originally spoke about environmental destruction, reduction in employment and the infringement on the rights of small property owners. Probably the strongest argument today comes from mothers enraged over the health of their children. One wonders how the coal industry can answer the studies linking MTR with higher incidents of cancer, tumors, kidney problems and asthma in children. The insight: organizing strategies, while keeping the ideals, must appeal to a broad base through every day concerns. To the dichotomy of “jobs versus the environment” must be added power analysis and health concerns. Sick children are too high a price to pay for cheap electricity. 

Missing in the book, however, is the moral critique that comes from a faith perspective. Mention is made of the landmark 1987 study by the United Church of Christ, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, but no mention is made of the 1975 Appalachian bishops’ pastoral, This Land Is Home to Me, that put absentee land ownership and the powerlessness of the people in a moral context.

Catholic and ecumenical efforts with their moral appeal deserve at least a slight nod in Appalachian campaigns involving labor, for-profit prisons, MTR and toxic waste dumps. From a ministry perspective, justice activists need to dialogue further about “commons environmentalism” as a strategy, and explore the principle of usufruct. Usufruct allows people to enjoy property belonging to another without destroying it (cited briefly but not developed in the section on “Ethics of Extraction.”) In Appalachian terms that could mean people who live near or frequent a place and know its value and wonders could testify in a court of law for the entire ecological community around a river, valley or mountain before it is despoiled or destroyed.

Overall, Mountains of Injustice keeps environmentalism focused on people and community where people of faith know it belongs.

Mountains of Injustice: Social and Environmental Justice in Appalachia
Edited by Michele Morrone and Geoffrey L. Buckley
Published by Ohio University Press, $49.95
Reviewed by Fr. John S. Rausch

Come & See

Through out the year, Glenmary Home Missioners hosts "Come and See" retreats for men who are discerning a call to religious life. Weekend retreats in the mission areas are a important way for those discerning a missionary vocation to learn more about Glenmary. Besides having the opportunity to meet Glenmary missioners, visit the missions and talk with local folks who live in the mission areas, lots of time is found for fun and camaraderie. 

If you are discerning a call to the religious life or would like to visit the missions, check out our website for upcoming Come & See opportunities.